Tuscany tour, part III
Trip Start
Jun 03, 2008
1
12
23
Trip End
Oct 14, 2008
Montepulciano,
Tuscany,
Italy
Monday, June 30, 2008
The Tuscany countryside is poetic. The whole country looks like one big beautiful park. The way the hills roll ever so gently, the vineyards and golden wheat fields form clean lines contrasting each other, you have to see with your own eyes to appreciate. And really, how can I not like a place where I can taste gorgerous wine for free, and be addressed Ciao Belle more times than my last 10 days in Italy combined. Montepuciano is really just a village, perfectly slow in rythm. Within two days I have already formed the hard habit of dropping by Poliziano cafe on the main street, sitting on their balcony for the paranomic view, dumping entire packets of sugar into tiny cups of espresso, and biting into their delicous pear tarts with a satisfied sigh.
The second morning I braved into the sun for a bike ride. The nearest village, Montechiello, is 8km away. But once I am on the road, it becames clear that the distance probably refer to what you get from drawing a straight line on the map. Adding endless twists and turns, ups and downs, the true distance would have to be multiplied at least 2 or 3 times. Now those gentle hills really aren't that gentle to pedal up, and I soon resorted to bike assisted hiking. It is rather like a Nordic skiing game: you push the gear up, the gear slides you down. Under the baking sun, my newly laundryed clothes were soaked, and smell distinctively of sunscreen. Even I could feel the insanity of this all. Well, abudant chances to practise my latest Italian phrase, Mama mia.
I will confess that I planned the biking tour through 3 towns, but mostly cared about visiting Montechiello for its legendary food. So under the circumstances I happily cancelled plan to go further, and settled in Montechiello for a big lunch. Best extra virgin olive oil I ever tasted, perfect with the saltless Tuscany bread, and asparagus with fresh truffle. A glass of Brunello, disputed king of Italian wine. I had to look up a new Italian word, felice, which means happy:)
Did I mention that people are nice? At the grocery store I waited in a considerable line. The lady at head of line bought a bit each of what seems like an endless array of produces: lettuce, peaches, eggplant, cherries, parsley, the list goes on. For the variaty she gets, and the time it tooks to bring over, weigh and pack everything, it seemed quite remarkable that the total was only 17 Euros. Fun to watch, but given the trend it will be another half hour before I can buy my two peaches, one pear, and a bunch of apricots. I must have fretted visibly, for the nice storekeeper lady happily waved me to the front of line, stuff everything in one bag, collected money and sent me off. Whew..
Every Tuscany town has its own festival. Montepuciano's version is known as Bravio delle Botti: the rolling of wine barrels. The town is built on steep hills, and competing contrada (neighborhoods) vie for rolling 800 pound wine barrels uphill the fastest. I got to see the junior league of this competition. Some kids were barely taller than the barells they were rolling (empty, understandably), everyone had difficulty to maintain direction as they mauneuvor turns, and overall it was quite a fine job cheered on by their contrada adults.
